


round and round

by orphan_account



Category: NCT (Band), SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Blind Date, House Party, M/M, seokmin and jaehyun are...... chaotic and clumsy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-10
Updated: 2019-10-10
Packaged: 2020-10-30 01:37:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,136
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20806370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Seokmin's first meeting with Jaehyun is a disaster. Seokmin's second meeting with Jaehyun is also a disaster.





	round and round

**Author's Note:**

> this is basically a crack fic. not my proudest work but when i heard about a fic fest where every story is centric to a party hosted by jackson wang there was no way i couldn't participate

Agreeing to go on a blind date may not have been one of Seokmin’s wisest choices.

It’s just—he’d been sulking for a year in his loneliness, and loneliness gets a little exhausting after a while. He knows he doesn’t _need_ to be in a relationship, but his cuddle quota for the year is far from being met and it would be nice to have someone to hold hands with. He thought this blind date would be a good opportunity to connect with another person, or at least practice his (rapidly deteriorating, almost nonexistent) flirting skills.

He’s also sick of everyone telling him that being single is a great time to discover yourself. Seokmin doesn’t need to discover himself. He knows who he is—a big idiot. Why can’t he be a big idiot with a boyfriend?

So when his best friend Mingyu texted him out of the blue one evening—_yo do u wanna go on a date with my roommate? he's cute i promise_—he found himself accepting the offer without putting much thought into it.

Seokmin doesn’t go into the date expecting much. Mingyu had filled him in on the details of the sudden offer; Mingyu’s roommate Jaehyun had just recently gotten out of a year-long relationship after walking in on his ex-boyfriend cheating on him, and he was devastated, to put things lightly. It had resulted in Jaehyun skipping classes and skipping meals and lamenting about how true love isn’t real. Mingyu had thought it would be a good idea for Jaehyun to go out on dates to help him forget about his shitty ex, and he thought Seokmin would be the perfect man for the job.

Admittedly, Jaehyun’s current state of emotions adds a lot of pressure, and Seokmin kind of wishes Mingyu didn’t mention the whole situation with the ex and the infidelity. But Seokmin isn’t the kind of person to back down from a challenge.

Seokmin feels awkward, sitting on a bench outside The Papillon. It’s one of the more expensive restaurants in town and he feels extremely out of place just sitting in front of it. Being an unemployed college student, Seokmin shouldn’t even be in this wealthy part of the city. But the restaurant was Jaehyun’s suggestion, and Seokmin’s always wanted to live the lifestyle of the rich and famous.

Dozens of people walk past the restaurant and Seokmin’s eyes dart around apprehensively because he doesn’t know who he’s looking for. His heart stops every time a college-aged male walks past, only to sink when the person strolls past without even sparing him a glance. After ten minutes of waiting, he gets worried that he’s been stood up and this whole thing is just a prank played by Mingyu. A jab at Seokmin’s never-ending loneliness.

But eventually a tall boy walks over to his bench, staring down at Seokmin.

“You must be Seokmin,” the boy says, extending a hand towards him.

Seokmin’s first impression: Jaehyun is handsome and charming and tall and… beautiful? He has flawless skin and amazingly soft hair and Seokmin can’t believe a person this attractive really exists. Furthermore, he can’t believe Mingyu’s been _living_ with this ethereal being for months and never had the decency to introduce them. He’ll be having some stern words with Mingyu later.

Seokmin’s stomach does some acrobatics as he shakes Jaehyun’s hand, and his brain seems to stop functioning altogether because he blurts out, “Yum.”

Jaehyun raises his eyebrows.

“S-sorry, I meant to say ‘yeah’!” Seokmin stumbles out. “And then I meant to say ‘um,’ but I guess I just kind of combined the two words.” Seokmin’s face heats up under Jaehyun’s stare. “So it came out as ‘yum.’ But that’s not what I meant.”

Jaehyun nods slowly.

Seokmin has a bad feeling about this.

They head into the restaurant with an awkward, sizeable distance between them. Seokmin’s nerves quickly pilot the date, and everything promptly begins going south.

Seokmin is suddenly unbelievably clumsy. He first realizes this when he accidentally bangs his hip against the edge of their table as he goes to sit down, letting out a high-pitched yelp that has several heads turning in their direction.

“You good?” Jaehyun asks.

Seokmin is sweating as he takes a seat. “Delightful.” He tries to hide his face behind the menu.

A few minutes later, Seokmin knocks over his glass of water, soaking the pristine tablecloth underneath them as he profusely apologizes.

After they’re relocated to another table, Seokmin spills some spaghetti sauce down the front of his white shirt and spends a good five minutes wiping at the orange stain with a napkin, but to no avail. Jaehyun gives him a _look_, but says nothing.

Most of their date is silence and small talk. Given Jaehyun’s current relationship situation, Seokmin can’t blame him for not being a chatterbox, but it makes everything so much harder.

Seokmin tries to crack a few lighthearted jokes, but most of his quips are met with tired stares from Jaehyun. They spend a few minutes talking about Jaehyun’s last relationship, and the sadness on Jaehyun’s face seems to deepen even more.

There’s a short gap in their conversation and Seokmin’s brain panics, urgently scrambling to find a conversation topic to fill the gap.

He reaches his arm across the table to point at something on Jaehyun’s plate, and the cuff of his blazer meets the flame dancing on the candle in the center of their table. He feels heat around his wrist and that’s when he knows he’s made a horrible mistake.

“WHAT DO I DO?” Seokmin blurts out desperately. The surrounding dinner guests watch with stunned horror and Seokmin hears a few gasps.

Seokmin continues sitting there like an idiot while the bright flames consume his sleeve, so Jaehyun heroically reaches forward, snags the almost-full water pitcher from the center of their table, and tosses the water onto Seokmin with one big swing.

It extinguishes the fire, but it also leaves Seokmin drenched from head-to-toe, dripping onto the carpet like he just narrowly failed to escape a thunderstorm.

“Thank you,” Seokmin says with a big, dopey smile. He’s looking at Jaehyun like he’s finally found his guardian angel. “At least you can’t say this date was boring.” Seokmin uses the back of his hand to wipe off the water dripping down the bridge of his nose.

Jaehyun groans and stands up. “I have to go,” he announces, clearly unimpressed by the catastrophe of a human being that’s seated across from him.

Seokmin’s smile disappears. “Why?”

“I have to go, um… water my dog.”

Seokmin blinks. It takes his mind a few seconds to process those words, and then he furrows his brow and says, “_What_?”

“I-I’m sorry. I just need some time to myself.” Jaehyun turns and walks out of the restaurant before Seokmin gets a chance to say anything else. Seokmin feels the judgmental stares of surrounding guests boring into the side of his head.

Seokmin hates Jaehyun for embarrassing him like this. He’s about to flee the restaurant to escape the haughty stares when the waiter suddenly swings by with a small slip of paper.

“Your check,” the waiter says monotonously.

Seokmin’s eyeballs nearly pop out of his head when he sees the massive number scrawled on the bottom of the check. Why did Jaehyun choose one of the most expensive restaurants in town? 

When Seokmin returns to his lonely apartment that night, he hops in the shower and decides that he isn’t ready for dating. He also decides to never speak to Jaehyun ever again. He can only pray that Jaehyun doesn’t go around telling everyone about the klutz that Mingyu set him up with. Seokmin’s dating life will officially be over if he gains the reputation of being a total ditz.

Once Seokmin’s out of the shower, he heads over to his bedroom to send Mingyu a text, but his phone suddenly pings with a notification. He takes the phone off the night stand to see that Jaehyun has apparently already filled Mingyu in on the details.

** _mingyu_ ** _ (7:36 PM)_

_WTF SEOKMIN U SET URSELF ON FIRE????_

Seokmin spends the next two months on a valiant mission to discover himself, like all single people are instructed to do. After the disaster with Jaehyun, he reasons it would be best to grow comfortable with the feeling of being alone.

He decides that he’ll teach himself a new language and he’ll learn how to read music. But both of these goals are much harder than he anticipated and after his first week of determination, his motivation vanishes. Maybe he just isn’t clever enough to learn another language, and maybe music just isn’t his calling.

So he resumes doing what he normally does in his free time—eating out of tubs of ice cream while binging Breaking Bad on his living room couch.

Towards the end of the semester, Seokmin hear a knock at his door when he isn’t expecting any visitors. He peers through the peephole on his door to see Mingyu standing on the other side with a bag of groceries in his embrace, his face dimly lit from the hallway lights. Mingyu sticks his tongue out at the peephole and Seokmin yanks the door open for him.

“Hello?” Seokmin says with confusion.

“Seokmin, you are a sad and lonely disaster,” Mingyu declares.

“Uh…” Seokmin begins. “Thanks?”

“I’ve come to help.” Mingyu barrels past Seokmin with the bag of groceries and clumsily sets it on Seokmin’s kitchen counter, knocking over a pepper shaker in the process. Seokmin shuts the door behind him and watches Mingyu carefully take ingredients out of the bag.

“I didn’t know you lived here,” Seokmin states sarcastically.

Mingyu turns around and flashes a smile at his best friend. “No, I live with Jaehyun,” he says. Seokmin immediately flushes with embarrassment as he mentally recounts the worst date of his life. “Have you met him? You guys would get along well.” Mingyu’s smile gets impossibly wider as Seokmin shoots him a glare.

“I told you to never mention that name ever again,” Seokmin says through gritted teeth.

“It’s a shame that you had to set yourself on fire like that,” Mingyu comments. He’s now bravely rummaging through Seokmin’s kitchen cabinets. “You guys had so much potential.”

“Mingyu, why are you here?”

Mingyu looks offended. “Am I not allowed to surprise my best friend with dinner?”

Seokmin steps closer to him and _squints_.

“Really!” Mingyu insists. “No ulterior motives. Just wanna spend some time with you. Wonwoo says you stopped showing up to the gym and we’ve been worried sick about you.”

Seokmin sighs, silently cursing Mingyu’s overly-observant boyfriend. “I’ve been busy,” he says.

“You have?” Mingyu inquires. “Doing what?”

“Trying out new hobbies. Discovering myself. Like all single people do.”

“And what have you discovered so far?” Mingyu provokes.

“That I might be lactose intolerant. And cooking meth might be a promising career path for me. You can make some big bucks in the meth industry.”

The frown on Mingyu’s face shows that he’s unamused.

Seokmin relents. “I was going to learn French and I was going to teach myself how to play the piano but I gave up,” Seokmin informs. “So I’ve just been trying out different ice cream flavors and re-watching Breaking Bad.”

“Well, you better throw out the ice cream because you won’t be single for much longer. I have the perfect opportunity for you to score a hot date.”

“No more blind dates,” Seokmin almost begs.

“It’s not a date,” Mingyu says.

“Then what is it?”

Mingyu looks suddenly nervous. He frowns down at Seokmin’s kitchen appliances and changes the subject, mumbling something about how much he despises Seokmin’s filthy stovetop.

“Mingyu? What’s the opportunity?” Seokmin prods.

Mingyu takes a deep breath, then shoots Seokmin a desperate smile. “First of all, promise you’ll keep an open mind, okay?”

That’s not a good response. Seokmin crosses his arms, bracing himself for whatever horrible suggestion is about to leave his best friend’s mouth.

“Actually,” Mingyu begins, taking his phone out of the back pocket of his jeans, “it’s easier if I just show you.”

Mingyu taps on his phone screen a few times, types rapidly with his thumbs, and then hands his phone over for Seokmin to look at. The screen is lit up with a Facebook event page. Seokmin’s eyes scan over the event title.

“I am _not_ going to a party,” Seokmin decides, instantly handing the phone back to Mingyu.

In the most whiney tone, Mingyu argues, “But it’s a Jackson Wang party!”

“Exactly. Which means there’s a high chance I’m going to wake up in someone’s bathtub with a raging hangover and a missing kidney.”

“You know you can survive with just one kidney!” Mingyu protests.

Seokmin heaves out a sigh. “Mingyu, I’m not going to this.”

Mingyu lets out a devastated wail and begins rambling about how he’s been trying to get invited to a Jackson Wang party for the past three years and it’ll be fun and it’s exactly what Seokmin needs right now and—

“Was this your plan?” Seokmin interrupts. “Make me a great dinner and then guilt me into going to a party with you?”

Mingyu doesn’t deny it. “Seokmin, please! Wonwoo’s out of town next weekend and Jackson Wang parties are supposed to be the _best_. Plus, you’d get to hang out with Jackson Wang! That would be amazing!”

“To you!”

Mingyu’s had a weird affinity for Jackson Wang ever since he was a wee freshman. It’s sort of akin to a celebrity crush. It makes sense. Jackson is virtually a celebrity on campus, known for throwing the best parties and just being a nice person in general. But despite being so popular, Mingyu has never been fortunate enough to run into him.

“Can’t you invite your roommate?” Seokmin suggests, purposefully avoiding the roommate’s name.

“Jaehyun told me he’s busy,” Mingyu counters, and Seokmin visibly winces at the name. “If this dinner doesn’t convince you to go, then I’ll have to resort to Plan B.”

Seokmin tilts his head. “What’s Plan B?”

“Threatening to slash your tires.”

Seokmin opens his mouth to express his distress, but Mingyu continues pleading.

“This will be great for you!” Mingyu promises. “You’ll get to meet all sorts of people and there’s free alcohol and you might even get to meet Jackson Wang himself and maybe you’ll even meet the man of your dreams and finally get—”

“I am _not_ going to get laid,” Seokmin cuts off, pointing a threatening finger at Mingyu. “You know I’m not into hookups.”

Mingyu just smirks.

Seokmin groans. “You’re kidding about the tires, right? You wouldn’t do that to me, right?”

“Do you want to risk finding out?”

Seokmin rolls his eyes. “What’s for dinner?”

“Doenjang jjigae,” Mingyu answers seamlessly, and Seokmin’s mouth waters at the thought of his favorite stew. His grandmother makes the best doenjang jjigae, but Mingyu’s proven to be a decent chef in the past. “Agree to come to the party with me and I’ll let you have some. Don’t come to the party with me and I’ll eat it in front of you while you watch,” Mingyu says.

Seokmin hates Mingyu.

The only thing Seokmin hates more than Mingyu is college parties. He keeps mentally reminding himself that this is the simple price to pay for the doenjang jjigae, and Seokmin would risk his life for doenjang jjigae, so this is really a very small price.

Seokmin is only at the party for twenty minutes before he somehow loses his friend. He doesn’t know anyone here and he would honestly much rather be studying for finals at home than standing alone in the corner of a rich student’s kitchen with his phone in his hand as he stares down at his Twitter timeline. Mingyu had disappeared to go to the restroom ten minutes ago and he still hasn’t returned. Seokmin can only imagine how the kidney harvest is going.

Everyone is packed in the living room, either consuming copious amounts of alcohol or singing—or rather, _screaming_—along to the Top 50 station that’s blaring from the center of the house, so Seokmin appreciates the isolation of the kitchen.

But his comfort is fleeting. In Seokmin’s peripheral vision, he sees a figure stroll into the room, making a beeline straight to the sink.

There’s a loud clank as something falls in the basin. “Dammit,” the stranger mutters.

Seokmin glances up from his phone to get a look at the person, and his stomach does a somersault when he realizes it’s Jackson Wang. Mingyu would _die_ to be in Seokmin’s place right now. He’s basically in the presence of a celebrity. But despite Jackson’s fame, Seokmin is uninterested in speaking to him, so he returns his attention to his phone.

“You look lonely in here,” Jackson remarks, scrubbing his hands under the faucet’s running water.

Seokmin looks up, realizing that Jackson’s talking to him. “And you look… like Jackson Wang.”

Jackson laughs. “Yeah, I get that a lot.” There’s a short pause, and then Jackson asks, “So what’s your name?” Seokmin answers the question and Jackson follows up with, “What are you doing in here by yourself, Seokmin?”

Seokmin’s mouth falls open but no words come out. He wasn’t expecting Jackson to speak to him at all, and now he’s basically interviewing him. He wasn’t prepared for this.

“Actually, you don’t have to answer that,” Jackson decides, acknowledging the shock on Seokmin’s face. He reaches forward and shuts off the sink, then dries his hands on a small towel resting on the counter adjacent to the sink. “Come with me,” Jackson tells him with a casual wave of his hand. “I have some cool people you can meet.”

Before Seokmin gets a chance to reply, Mingyu has returned to the kitchen, jogging straight over to Seokmin.

“I have to tell you something,” Mingyu says with wide eyes and an urgent tone. He looks like he’s just seen a ghost.

Seokmin’s eyes dart from Mingyu to Jackson.

“Okay,” Seokmin says, looking back at Mingyu.

Mingyu frowns, turning around to see what Seokmin was looking at, and a huge smile lights up his face when he sees Jackson. Mingyu introduces himself to Jackson and they shake hands. Seokmin can feel the excitement radiating off of Mingyu, and it’s evident that Mingyu has completely forgotten about whatever he was going to say.

“I was just going to take your friend to meet some other people,” Jackson tells Mingyu. “He looked lonely in here. Come on out into the living room!”

Jackson walks out of the room and Mingyu is eager to follow him. Seokmin leans forward and grabs Mingyu’s arm before they get a chance to leave the room.

“What were you going to say earlier?” Seokmin questions when Mingyu turns to face him.

“Oh.” Mingyu hesitates. “Uh… it can wait.”

Seokmin doesn’t prod any further and follows the two of them out of the kitchen and into the dim and crowded living room. It’s enormous, fitting at least eighty people. It’s also humid and the music is turned up so loud that Seokmin can feel the floor shaking underneath him with every drumbeat. An impending headache forms between his eyes.

Jackson and Mingyu get along almost instantly. Seokmin follows them around like a shy kid, watching them crack jokes back and forth while he makes no effort to join their conversations.

Jackson introduces them to a few of his friends but Seokmin is too overwhelmed by the sudden influx of new names and faces to actually remember them. He just forces out courteous smiles at each of the strangers, silently praying that he can go home soon.

Another half hour later, Seokmin decides he needs a break from the socialization. He’s about to beg Mingyu to head home early when Jackson suddenly hollers at a tall person standing a few feet away from him. Jackson grabs the person by the arm and drags them over to Seokmin and Mingyu.

Jackson’s tone is filled with innocent excitement when he says, “Do you guys know Jaehyun? He’s the nicest person you’ll ever meet.”

Even in the dark lighting Seokmin recognizes Jaehyun’s frustratingly perfect face. His soft brown hair. His broad shoulders. And the hint of a smirk on his lips.

Seokmin’s jaw unhinges when they make eye contact and his body is suddenly flooded with the overwhelming desire to flee. So that’s what he does. Or, that’s what he tries to do. But Mingyu places an iron grip on Seokmin’s wrist, preventing him from leaving.

“Thanks for introducing me to my own roommate,” Mingyu teases Jackson, and the three of them laugh. Jackson says something in response, but Seokmin doesn’t process his words because he’s too busy staring at Jaehyun with disdain.

Seokmin can’t believe Mingyu has the audacity to act so lighthearted right now. As if Seokmin didn’t specifically request to never see Jaehyun’s face ever again. This is unfair.

There’s a loud crashing sound on the other side of the room and Jackson walks away from them to go scope out the scene with Mingyu obediently following along. Seokmin’s eyes remain fixed on Jaehyun. The look of panic in Seokmin’s eyes contrasts with the smug grin on Jaehyun’s face. Maybe it’s because Jaehyun managed to escape their date without any charred clothing, so he really has nothing to be ashamed of.

A concoction of emotions floods Seokmin’s brain. First he feels embarrassment as his mind goes on a short journey, remembering just how awkward and disastrous their date was. Then he feels anger. Pure, raw _anger_. Now that Jaehyun is only inches away from him, he wants to yell at Jaehyun for abandoning him in the middle of the restaurant that night. It was unimaginably rude and selfish and—

Jaehyun extends a hand for Seokmin to shake. “I’m Jaehyun. I don’t think we’ve met.”

Seokmin narrows his eyes. “You’re not funny.”

It makes Jaehyun giggle, dimples indenting his cheeks. Being angry at Jaehyun becomes just a little bit harder.

“Are you going to leave me hanging?” Jaehyun asks with his hand still outstretched towards Seokmin.

“Yes.” Seokmin moves to turns away, but Jaehyun speaks up again.

“Hey, I’m sorry,” Jaehyun amends. “About walking out on you a few months ago.”

Seokmin rolls his eyes and pads over to the beer pong table in the corner of the room. He watches the ping pong ball bounce back and forth a few times, and then he lets out a small yelp when a hand grabs his wrist. His heart resumes when he realizes it’s just Mingyu.

“I should’ve told you about Jaehyun earlier,” Mingyu says. “It’s what I was going to tell you in the kitchen. Jaehyun told me he had plans this weekend but I guess his plans got cancelled at the last minute and he went here instead.” Mingyu places his hands on Seokmin’s shoulders to emphasize his next words. “I didn’t know. I _promise_. He never told me he would be here.”

Seokmin frowns. “Can we at least go home before I run into him again?”

Mingyu pouts. “But it’s only nine o’clock.”

Letting out a groan, Seokmin twists his neck and peers back over his shoulder. Jaehyun is talking to a girl in the center of the room. He’s using his hands to gesticulate wildly and he’s radiating charisma into the air, his liveliness a complete 180 from the Jaehyun that Seokmin went on a date with two months ago. The power of alcohol, he supposes. And the power of getting over your ex, maybe?

Jaehyun catches Seokmin’s stare and shoots him a confident wink. Seokmin turns away rapidly, but not before his face heats up.

Jackson tears Mingyu away to do more shots before Seokmin can try to convince him to leave again. Seokmin lets out a defeated sigh and trudges out of the living room, down the hallway, past the laundry room, and over to Jackson’s back door so he can slip outside.

It’s a cold and drizzly evening. Seokmin stands under the roof of the patio, absorbing the muffled music and drunken screams coming from the house as it mixes in with the soothing sound of the rain falling.

At least he’s safe out here. Safe from the drunken masses. Safe from the social pressures. Safe from Jaehyun.

Well, that’s what he thought.

Seokmin has plenty of time to kill so he sits on the cold cement, leans his back against the side of the house, and takes his phone out of his hoodie pocket. There’s no harm in scrolling through social media and watching some videos. It’s an innocent way to keep himself entertained. Nothing could go wrong.

He’s midway through a Jenna Marbles video when a notification appears in the middle of his screen, eliciting a bloodcurdling scream out of him.

It’s an AirDrop notification for what appears to be… a dick pic.

He reads the text above the compromising photo—“Jung Jaehyun would like to share a photo”—and he lets out another bloodcurdling scream before clapping a hand over his mouth in horror.

This isn’t happening.

Seokmin smashes the decline button faster than he’s done anything in his life. He lets his phone slip between his fingers, not even caring when it makes a loud smacking sound as it collides with the concrete underneath him.

He takes a few shaky deep breaths and then rubs his eyes with his fists, begging the mental image of Jaehyun’s dick to leave his mind, but it remains stubbornly embedded.

Objectively speaking, it wasn’t a bad dick. The picture was a little blurry and the lighting was a little harsh, but those are just artistic critiques. The dick itself… wasn’t horrible. If it was anybody aside from Jaehyun, he might consider—

Seokmin groans and squeezes his eyes shut, cursing himself for entertaining the possibility for even just a split second.

This isn’t real. He’s either dead or having the strangest dream of his life. Seokmin pinches himself and the sharp pain informs him that this _is _real, and Seokmin is very much awake. Jaehyun really is a horny monster. There’s no other explanation.

Seokmin can’t believe that Jaehyun thought a dick pic would win him over. Seokmin isn’t the type of person to hook up with strangers at a party. In fact, he’s basically a virgin if we’re discounting the awkward, curious blowjob he got from his freshman year roommate. And furthermore, Seokmin would never hook up with Jaehyun.

Well, would he? Jaehyun is super attractive and tall and muscular and apparently he has a nice—

No. Seokmin absolutely would not hook up with Jaehyun.

He’s furious. He had no plans of interacting with Jaehyun for the rest of the night but he can’t repress his fury any longer. This is _unacceptable_.

Seokmin’s storming into the house now. He slides past a drunken couple groping each other in the hallway and goes straight for the living room. There’s so many people. It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack. Seokmin inwardly curses Jackson for being so popular. Speaking of Jackson, they suddenly make eye contact from across the room, and they hastily walk towards each other, meeting in the middle.

Before Seokmin gets a chance to say anything, Jackson blurts out, “Jaehyun’s looking for you. I don’t know where he is now, but he said it’s urgent. He looked really freaked out.”

“He should be,” Seokmin says.

Jackson frowns in confusion and Seokmin walks away to continue his search.

He asks a lot of strangers if they’ve seen Jaehyun. Most of them just give him confused stares and say, “Who?”

After sweeping through the entire living room, Seokmin makes his way over to the kitchen, and that’s where he finds him.

He’s leaning over the kitchen table, accompanied by a beer can on the table, his head hanging low in his hands. Seokmin can’t tell if it’s out of shame or because he’s drunk. It might be a mixture of both. There’s a group of people chatting on the opposite side of the kitchen, next to the refrigerator, but they appear to be completely oblivious to Jaehyun and his crisis.

Seokmin walks over to Jaehyun and crosses his arms. Jaehyun looks up at him after a few seconds with visible fear in his eyes. Jaehyun opens his mouth to say something, but Seokmin cuts him off.

“Jesus, really?” Seokmin spits out loudly.

“No, I’m Jaehyun.”

Seokmin is unamused. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

His words came out louder than he intended. The group of strangers is watching them out of curiosity.

“Outside,” Seokmin tells Jaehyun harshly.

Seokmin walks out of the kitchen, past the group of strangers, and onto the same patio he was sitting on when his eyes were cursed with the image of Jaehyun’s dick. Or blessed, maybe? He’s not entirely sure.

He waits a few minutes, letting the cold air seep into his skin, and then he gets worried when Jaehyun doesn’t show up. He’s about to go back inside when the door suddenly swings open with a squeak and a very fearful Jaehyun stumbles out of the door and approaches him.

“I have an explanation,” Jaehyun slurs out.

“You’re _disgusting_,” Seokmin states. “Nobody likes unsolicited dick pics. Did you really think that would work on me?”

Seokmin is about to launch into his anti-dick-pic lecture when Jaehyun suddenly claims, “It wasn’t meant for you.”

Seokmin would be lying to say that didn’t disappoint him in a weird way. As trashy as unsolicited nudes are, it was flattering to think that someone as attractive as Jaehyun was into him, even if he had a nasty way of expressing it.

“Then who was it for?” Seokmin asks.

For just a fraction of a second, Seokmin’s gaze on Jaehyun drifts down to Jaehyun’s crotch. It happens so quickly that he thinks maybe he got away with it and Jaehyun didn’t notice. But Jaehyun sends him a shit-eating grin.

“You’re upset,” Jaehyun accuses. “You wish it was for you.”

Seokmin blushes under the porch light. “I do not!” he argues and takes a step back. Okay—he kind of does, but it’s not like he can just blatantly admit that. “I’m just trying to figure out why you had to ruin my night like this.”

“It was for my ex,” Jaehyun says. “I found him here with someone else.”

“So you thought sending him a picture of your junk would convince him to sleep with you?” Seokmin asks. When he says it out loud, it sounds a bit more logical. At least, from a drunk person’s perspective.

Jaehyun merely shrugs. “It’s worked before.”

Seokmin doesn’t know how to respond.

“I drank a lot so my judgement might be a _little_ clouded,” Jaehyun mumbles. Seokmin takes a step closer to him when he realizes Jaehyun is looking wobbly on his knees.

“Are you okay?” Seokmin asks.

Jaehyun grabs onto the edge of the railing. “I have a very high alcohol tolerance,” he states.

“Mm-hmm. Clearly.”

“I’m _fine_,” Jaehyun insists, letting go of the railing to prove that he can stand on his own.

Then he loses his balance, but fortunately Seokmin is able to grab him in time. He brings Jaehyun slowly down to the ground, setting him so that he’s sitting upright against the side of the house.

“How much did you drink?” Seokmin asks.

“Like… a lot?” Jaehyun says descriptively. “I just need to sit for a bit. I’m fine.”

“You should go home,” Seokmin instructs. “When you start to think AirDropping your ex a picture of your dick is a good idea, you’ve drank too much.”

Jaehyun just pouts.

“Who did you come here with?” Seokmin asks.

“Nobody,” Jaehyun says with a distinct whiney twinge to his voice, like he’s irritated by Seokmin’s concern.

“What? How were you going to get home?”

“Dunno. Uber or something.”

Seokmin kind of panics, although he doesn’t know why. Jaehyun isn’t his responsibility, yet he feels responsible. Seokmin doesn’t know how to take care of a drunk person. But fortunately this is Mingyu’s roommate, so he can just leave it to Mingyu to handle, right?

Except Mingyu doesn’t answer his string of urgent texts. And when Seokmin wanders back into Jackson’s house, Mingyu is nowhere to be found. And neither is Jackson. Just hundreds of sweaty bodies dancing to loud music, leaving Seokmin feeling like he’s suffocating.

He goes back out to the patio to find that Jaehyun is now asleep. For a brief moment, Seokmin is worried that Jaehyun’s dead, but Seokmin gives him a nudge with his foot and Jaehyun cracks open an eye.

“I’m taking you home,” Seokmin says.

“We haven’t even held hands but you’re already taking me back to your place? At least take me out to dinner first.”

“I’m taking you to _your _home,” Seokmin says gratingly, “so you can sleep. Because you’re already making bad choices and it’s not even midnight.” Seokmin pauses. “And, for the record, I _did_ take you out to dinner already.”

Seokmin’s Uber driver is less than thrilled at the sight of Seokmin’s “friend.” He tries to argue that Jaehyun isn’t his friend, simply an acquaintance that he’s helping out, but it only makes the driver more skeptical.

The issue is that she doesn’t want Jaehyun in her car because she doesn’t want him throwing up on her leather seats. Rightfully so, because Jaehyun throws up in the backseat halfway through the ride. Jaehyun is apparently too drunk to feel guilty. He just stares at his puke puddle with a blank face. The driver yells out of frustration and charges Seokmin a 90,000-won cleanup fee. Seokmin wishes Jaehyun had waited until the end of the ride because he spends the entire second half of the ride listening to the driver’s incessant ranting about her hatred for drunk people.

When they arrive at Jaehyun and Mingyu’s apartment building, Seokmin has to pull Jaehyun out of the car. Seokmin apologizes to the driver for the umpteenth time, then guides Jaehyun into the building, up the stairwell, and down the carpeted hallway to his unit.

“You don’t have to hold me up,” Jaehyun whines petulantly. “I’m not a baby. I can stand on my own.”

Seokmin lets go of Jaehyun and Jaehyun promptly falls against the door and slides to the ground.

“You’re drunker than you think you are,” Seokmin tells Jaehyun as he hauls him up to his feet. Jaehyun doesn’t fight back.

It feels weird being in Mingyu’s apartment without Mingyu there. He flips on the light switches and guides Jaehyun over to his room. Once they’re in his room, Seokmin practically throws him down onto his bed. Jaehyun lets out a surprised yelp.

“Don’t be too gentle,” Jaehyun snaps sarcastically.

“You’re heavy,” Seokmin says, heaving to catch his breath. “Promise me you’ll sleep.”

Jaehyun whines and rolls over.

“_Jaehyun_,” Seokmin hisses. “Tell me you’ll just sleep.”

Jaehyun has his face planted into his pillow. He says some muffled, indistinguishable words, and Seokmin decides to take them as a yes.

“I’ll be in the living room if you need anything,” Seokmin tells him. He hits the light switch, shrouding the room in darkness, and shuts the door behind him on his way out.

He decides to just wait for Mingyu to get home on the couch in the living room. Seokmin has to curl up in the fetal position to fit on the tiny couch. He shoots Mingyu a few more texts, asking him where he is, but they remain unanswered. Seokmin’s eyes grow heavy an hour later and he falls asleep before Mingyu gets home.

A loud rattling noise from the kitchen causes Seokmin to shoot awake in alarm. Through his blurred vision, he can make out the vague outline of Jaehyun standing next to the refrigerator. Seokmin’s ears detect the faint sound of Jaehyun cursing as he picks up what appears to be a pill bottle. Must be ibuprofen for his inevitable hangover.

Seokmin yawns and pulls the fleece blanket further over himself. Wait, blanket? He doesn’t remember having a blanket when he fell asleep. He frowns at the blanket.

“Sorry for waking you,” Jaehyun calls over, interrupting Seokmin’s thoughts. “Did Mingyu bring you here?”

Seokmin cranes his neck to look at Jaehyun. “No?”

“I figured Mingyu brought you back with him after the party for some reason.”

“Mingyu’s not here,” Seokmin tells him.

Jaehyun looks completely bewildered by this information. “How did you get here then?”

Seokmin sits up and drapes the blanket over his shoulders. “You don’t remember last night?” he asks.

Jaehyun gives him a blank stare. Then some gears seem to wind in his head because his eyes suddenly widen and his mouth falls open. A faint blush dusts his cheeks, and he asks, “Did we…?”

Seokmin looks at him in confusion for a few seconds. “Did we what?” he asks. Then he realizes what Jaehyun’s thinking. “_No_!” Seokmin cries out. “No, no, no.”

Jaehyun breathes a sigh of relief.

“You were too drunk to stand up,” Seokmin explains. “I lost Mingyu so I had to take you home because you were about to pass out at Jackson’s place. Also, you threw up in the Uber on the way back and I got charged ninety thousand won, so you owe me.”

Jaehyun is apparently sober enough to feel guilty because he places a palm over his mouth in horror.

“But that’s not even the worst part,” Seokmin continues, holding a finger up in the air. “You tried to send me a—” Seokmin stops himself.

If Jaehyun doesn’t remember, then why bring it up? This is his opportunity to pretend that it never happened. The image of Jaehyun’s dick pops up in Seokmin’s mind like it’s taunting him. He’s going to need an exorcism to get this memory out of him.

“I sent you what?” Jaehyun inquires.

Seokmin just shakes his head. “Nothing,” he says quickly. He pushes himself off the couch, grabs his phone off the coffee table, and heads towards the door leading out of the apartment. “Glad to see you’re recovering from your hangover. I’ll head out now.”

“Seokmin, what did I do?” Jaehyun asks. The look in his eyes screams pure terror.

“Nothing,” Seokmin lies. “You’re fine. I mixed you up with someone else. You didn’t do anything.”

Jaehyun looks unconvinced but he doesn’t get a chance to argue any further because Seokmin slips out of the apartment in the blink of an eye.

Seokmin decides to spend the rest of his day trying to forget about Jaehyun’s dick. It’s a problem he never thought he would ever have to face.

He shoots Mingyu a worried text when he gets home—_yo where tf are you??????_—and settles in for the next episode of Breaking Bad. Mingyu responds an hour later, lighting up Seokmin’s lock screen.

** _mingyu (2:48 PM)_ **

_omg sorry i literally woke up in jackson’s bathtub lol_

_both kidneys intact though, i think_

_i hope, at least???_

_i'm sorry i lost you last night! i hope you got home okay :(_

_also i just got back and why is jaehyun acting so antsy_

There’s a tiny fear in the back of Seokmin’s head that Jaehyun will somehow remember the dick pic. Seokmin doesn’t know if he should tell Mingyu the truth.

** _seokmin (2:53 PM)_ **

_glad to hear u salvaged ur kidneys, you’ll definitely find them useful in the future_

_uhhh idk abt jaehyun lol_

_maybe he just didn’t have a great night_

** _mingyu (2:57 PM)_ **

_he said he did something last night but he can’t remember what_

_and he keeps complaining bc apparently u know about it but u won’t tell him_

_but why tf would u know about it???_

_unless..._

_SEOKMIN_

_DID U GUYS HOOK UP???????_

** _seokmin (3:02 PM)_ **

_no ew omfg no_

** _mingyu (3:02 PM)_ **

_FINALLY??????_

** _seokmin (3:03 PM)_ **

_i said no dude_

_check ur reading comprehension skills_

** _mingyu (3:05 PM)_ **

_then what did he do???? why is he so panicked???_

** _seokmin (3:06 PM)_ **

_it doesn’t matter!!!!_

Seokmin feels a little guilty for keeping it a secret, but he convinces himself that everything is smoother this way. Really, he’s doing Jaehyun a favor. Jaehyun should be _thanking_ him.

Seokmin doesn’t realize he’s fallen asleep until a couple hours later when a loud knock echoes through his apartment. He grumbles and rolls over, pressing his face down into the couch cushions and silently willing whoever is at the door to go away.

But the knocking starts up again, this time a little bit louder, and he has a feeling that whoever is behind the door isn’t leaving anytime soon. So he forces his body off the couch and feebly stumbles over to the door.

He pulls the door open without bothering to check through the peephole and suddenly Jaehyun’s face is way too close to his own. Jaehyun’s fist is raised up in the air like he’s getting ready to knock again, and he slowly brings it back down to his side.

“Hey,” Jaehyun breathes out.

Seokmin gives him an icy glare. “I was sleeping. What is it?” He frowns. “How do you know where I live?”

“Mingyu,” Jaehyun answers.

“Don’t you have better things to be doing?” Seokmin grumbles. “Like, I don’t know. Watering your dog?”

“Look, I just wanted to say thank you,” Jaehyun goes on. “For bringing me home last night and making sure I was safe.”

Seokmin nods. “Okay. You’re welcome.”

“And while I’m here, I also wanted to say sorry about our first date,” Jaehyun says rapidly.

Seokmin laughs. “Don’t say ‘first date.’ That implies there’ll be a second date.”

Jaehyun ignores him. “I tried to apologize at the party but it was a half-assed apology and I knew you weren’t buying it, and I know this is, like, two months late, but it’s better late than never, right?”

Seokmin stares at him wordlessly. Then he folds his arms.

“I don’t want to make excuses, but I wasn’t in a great mood that day,” Jaehyun continues. “I was still hung up on my ex and I was just… irritable. I shouldn’t have walked out on you. I probably shouldn’t have even agreed to go on the date. I was a dick.” Jaehyun pauses for a brief moment. “Speaking of dicks…I remembered. What happened last night.”

That snaps Seokmin awake in a heartbeat. He can feel his face reddening and it’s suddenly really hot in his apartment? Seokmin wants to say it’s no big deal, but that would be a lie. He settles for not saying anything at all.

Jaehyun explains. “I opened my camera roll earlier and got an eyeful of my own…um…yeah…” he trails off. “So I just wanted to say thank you for getting me home safely in spite of the thing that I sent you. And I’m sorry you had to see it. I was drunk, and I get really confident when I’m drunk.”

Stupidly, Seokmin says, “It’s okay. It wasn’t a bad picture.” Pause. “Oh god. Wait—”

“So you think it was a good picture?” Jaehyun asks.

“I didn’t mean that the way it sounded. I’m just saying—you have nothing to be ashamed about.” Seokmin should just sew his mouth shut, honestly. Jaehyun breaks into a prideful grin and Seokmin wants to wipe it off his face. “Just—never mind. Can we agree to never speak to each other ever again?”

Jaehyun is staring at him with the most infuriating smile. Seokmin wishes the ground beneath him would open up and swallow him whole.

“Is that everything?” Seokmin says with a gulp.

He can feel his eyes begging to do that thing again. The thing where they can’t seem to control themselves and they feel the sudden, desperate urge to stare at Jaehyun’s bulge. Seokmin sweats and forces himself to maintain eye contact, but apparently he doesn’t try hard enough because his eyes dip down again. He’s not really sure what his eyes hoped to gain from doing that, because it’s not like he can see through layers of clothing.

There’s no way Jaehyun didn’t see that, so Seokmin moves to close the door before Jaehyun can make any clever comments.

Seokmin’s body and his mind must be on two different wavelengths today because he doesn’t move fast enough. Jaehyun takes a step towards him, his eyes drifting down to Seokmin’s lips and…

“Jae—”

Jaehyun’s mouth is on his mouth? They’re kissing?

Seokmin lets out a squeak and he places both hands on Jaehyun’s chest to shove him away. Jaehyun goes stumbling back a few feet, eyes wide open and clouded with fear.

“What the _fuck_?” Seokmin hisses.

“I’m sorry.” Jaehyun is frozen stiff. “I shouldn’t have done that, I’m—”

“Is this how you seduce people?” Seokmin asks. “You send them dick pics and then show up at their apartment to kiss them without their consent?”

Jaehyun rubs the back of his neck nervously.

Seokmin steps forward, grabs Jaehyun by his collar, and pulls him in. “Because you’re lucky it’s working,” he tells Jaehyun, who is now only a few inches away from him. “But you should’ve asked first. It’s the polite thing to do.” Seokmin tilts his chin up and presses their lips together again. Jaehyun leans into the kiss, placing a gentle hand on the small of Seokmin’s back. Seokmin threads his fingers through Jaehyun’s hair—it’s somehow even softer than he imagined—and he revels in the taste of Jaehyun’s mouth. 

Jaehyun pulls away. In one long breath, he rushes out, “I wasn’t going to tell you this because I didn’t want you to freak out and hate me, but that picture _was_ meant for you.”

“Ugh.” Seokmin scrunches his nose in disgust.

“I’m sorry,” Jaehyun tries. “I’m really, really sorry. I wasn’t planning on actually sending it at first but then my finger slipped and it was too late and….” He waits for Seokmin’s reaction.

Seokmin definitely has angry words prepared, but he doesn’t want to be mad at Jaehyun. All he manages to say is “Oh.”

Jaehyun nods like that’s the most eloquent sentence Seokmin has ever said. “To be fair, it seems like you sort of liked it.”

“It was, um—” Seokmin can feel his face turning the color of a tomato. “An interesting experience.”

“Look, let me make it up to you,” Jaehyun suggests.

“With what? A free memory wipe?”

“Unfortunately I can’t offer memory wipes. I can offer dinner, though.”

Seokmin is speechless for a few seconds. Then he says, “We tried dinner before, remember? Wasn’t exactly a walk in the park. In fact, I’ve spent the past two months trying to block that night out of my memory. My blazer was ruined. I had to dish out way too much money for a new one.”

Seokmin suddenly remembers the anger he possessed after Jaehyun walked out on him, and it fills him with rage.

“Also, you _abandoned_ me last time,” Seokmin complains. “I had to pay the entire check myself. And in case you forgot, my bank account took another huge hit last night when you decided to throw up in a stranger’s car. So—forgive me—but I’m not sure if I’m keen on doing anything at all with you.”

Seokmin realizes the words were kind of harsh and he wishes he’d phrased it better. But if Jaehyun is offended, he doesn’t show it.

“Tomorrow at 6 at The Papillon?” Jaehyun suggests. “A second chance?” Jaehyun’s calm demeanor is so _attractive. _Seokmin feels like he’s seconds away from melting into the wood floor. It’s impossible for him to say no.

With a soft voice, Seokmin says, “Just… don’t walk out on me this time.”

Jaehyun smiles. “Don’t set your coat on fire this time.”

Seokmin spots The Papillon’s familiar yellow neon sign when he’s two blocks away. For a brief moment, his mind takes him back to the night that he first met Jaehyun. The night when he spilled his water all over their dinner table, right before setting himself on fire.

On the bright side, it means that Jaehyun must have low expectations.

Jaehyun is standing in front of the building when Seokmin gets to the front entrance. He’s wearing a perfectly-fitted blazer and matching pants. He looks like a model and Seokmin kind of despises him for being so effortlessly good-looking.

“I really don’t know why you feel like this date is necessary,” Seokmin says.

“We got off on the wrong foot,” Jaehyun reasons.

“Well, we better be on the right foot this time because I’ve only got two feet.”

Jaehyun laughs, and Seokmin has a good feeling about this.

**Author's Note:**

> protip: although jaehyun got lucky in this fic it's probably not a good idea to send unsolicited nudes to strangers irl


End file.
